


Columba Livia Domestica

by waterfallliam



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Gen, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-22
Updated: 2020-03-22
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:08:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23260741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/waterfallliam/pseuds/waterfallliam
Summary: Radek smiles, looking more unhinged than happy, but maybe that’s just his hair. “I’ll name a pigeon after you!”
Comments: 2
Kudos: 15





	Columba Livia Domestica

**Author's Note:**

> Another something from my desktop that's collecting dust. Hope you enjoy.

“Elizabeth you are a marvel, thank you!” Radek smiles, looking more unhinged than happy, but maybe that’s just his hair. “I’ll name a pigeon after you!”

“I—thank you,” Elizabeth says. She’s surprised, but her diplomatic training kicks in and helps her sound sincere, too. 

Radek rushes off back to the lab to share the good news before she can ask what he means exactly. As leader of the expedition, she does need to stay somewhat in the loop with regards to gossip, and there have been confusing murmurings. “Is that… is Dr. Zelenka courting me? What is it with pigeons?” Elizabeth asks, turning to Rodney.

It’s only them and John left, who’d she’d insisted sit in, making up a reason for him to be there to cover up the fact that she didn’t want to spend three hours stuck in a meeting with Rodney and Radek when she knows John can help speed it up to under an hour on a good day.

Rodney snorts. “He trains them. Raised them back on Earth. Like I’d know what it means. He certainly hasn’t named one after me.”

Elizabeth considers this information. She hadn’t known Radek had a fondness for birds. Maybe she could introduce the idea of having more projects that overlapped across scientific divisions. Or start the long process of arguing for pets to be allowed on Atlantis, if the same expedition members stayed long enough there’d definitely be a strong argument for it.

“As far as your taste in men goes, he is smarter than most of the expedition,” Rodney muses. She rolls her eyes.

“I don’t have those kind of feelings for Radek,” Elizabeth insists. He’s a competent, decent and kind man, she has no doubts about that, but when she allows her thoughts to turn amorous, it’s brown eyes and Bantos rods she thinks of. Shared cups of tea as they stand shoulder to shoulder on the balcony overlooking the ocean, Teyla’s smile at something she says buoying her through the morning’s unfortunate bureaucratic necessities.

“Well, who knows what’s next if naming a pigeon after you is the first step,” Rodney says, giggling a little. He _should_ be in a good mood, she’s just approved an order for a ludicrous amount of equipment that’s going to have Caldwell raising his eyebrows when he sees it.

“Zelenka’s not into you,” John interjects, not looking up from where he’s making a paper plane out of a meeting agenda. He flies it straight out her office window. It lands on the balcony across the gate room, joining a dozen or so others. “It’s not a,” John scrunches his nose, “courting ritual. It just means you’re friends.”

Rodney looks at him impishly, and goes to sit on the desk where John can’t ignore him. “How would you know, Colonel?”

John gives him a tight smile and throws another plane without looking. “He’s naming one after me, too.”

“What? When? And why?”

John leans back in his chair, settling in to bask in Rodney’s attention and jealousy now that the hard work of the meeting is over. Like most of the expedition, Elizabeth wonders when they’ll see what everyone else already does.

She sighs as she leaves her office. They’ll be at it for at least another fifteen minutes before they decide to go flirt somewhere else. She may as well go get some fresh coffee from the cafeteria while she waits for them to vacate her office, Rodney had drunk all of hers during the meeting.

As she sips her fresh brew by the window that looks out at the ocean, she imagines what the pigeons Radek will name after her and John could look like. It’s an honour no one else has ever thought to attribute her before, and it warms her heart in a way that an award or handshake from a politician never has.


End file.
